| LiveJournal Syndication |
[16 Oct 2004|03:52pm] |
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As I warned in this previous entry, I have turned off the LJCrossPost plug-in which posted entries to my old LiveJournal account. I’ve now setup a syndicated feed on LiveJournal under the damon_durand account.
If you want to continue to have my entries appear on your friends page, you’ll need to add the damon_durand account to your friends list.
My old account will no longer be updated.
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| "Suck it", Dick (100th Post) |
[15 Oct 2004|01:58pm] |
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A great big “Suck it” to the RV/Sport shop owned by Dick in Durand, Wisconsin. (Whom I won’t link to or name, since I don’t want to increase its Google page rank in the slightest)
For years my homepage was the first hit when you searched for Damon Durand on Google. About a year ago I got bumped into number two spot by the previously mentioned site. When I tried to increase my rank through the use of Meta tags and submitting my site for search at Google’s Add URL page I disappeared from the Google index entirely. (Not just demoted; if you searched for any trace of my site you wouldn’t find it at all other than external links pointing to it) A few days ago I noticed that GoogleBot craweled my site once again…I knew it was only a matter of time until I’d be relisted.
I signed up through Google Alerts and waited. This morning I got the first matching alert, switched over to Google and did a search. I’m not only back in the list now, but I’m the first hit, too. Yay!
On a quick aside, this is the 100th post on my weblog. I’ve picked up the posting pace over the past few weeks, so hopefully the 200th post will be here in much less time. I’m sure the blogging activities have helped matters a bit, too, since Google loves linked content and I’ve been doing much more of that as of late, too.
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| Sicky Pt 3 |
[15 Oct 2004|10:40am] |
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OK, so maybe driving in the cold last night in Twinkie was a bad idea.
Sore throat hasn’t gotten any better. Finally broke down and administered 600mg of ibrophrophen.
Everything else feels absolutely wonderful today.
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| Frozen Twinkie |
[15 Oct 2004|12:38am] |
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So, Mel wanted a ride in Twinkie.
The temperature outside was below 45 at drive time.
I braved the cold, with no working heater, and drove Mel to dinner and back in Twinkie.
Thankfully I remembered my gloves. That big bus steering wheel does not warm up EVER!
New rule: no driving Twinkie below 50 degrees F!
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| Sicky Pt 2 |
[14 Oct 2004|10:06am] |
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Throat still hurts, but other than incredible thirst I have no other pains or signs of sickness.
Had to come into work today because I’ve got two client meetings. Luckily, one of them includes lunch. Yippee!
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| Meme-orable |
[13 Oct 2004|11:58pm] |
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everybody join in!
15 years ago today, I would have been…
1. 13, 8th Grade, living with my parents in Spring Lake Park, MN
2. Finishing my sixth and final year in the Metropolitan Boys Choir with a tour of Germany and Austria the following June
3. Had my first serious girlfriend, Jennifer Burnett. We would always sit together at lunch and play footsie.
10 years ago today, I would have been…
1. Just arrived at GMI in pursuit of a computer engineering degree
2. Logging into ISCA BBS for the first time
3. Figuring out how to forge email From: addresses
5 years ago today, I would have been…
1. Contemplating leaving Investment Advisers Inc. after 7.5 years to go work for Agiliti
2. Finishing up Y2K Compliance documentation and testing
3. Driving Twinkie through downtown Minneapolis in a shirt and tie, commuting to work
3 years ago today, I would have been…
1. Going to couple’s therapy
2. Refinancing the house
3. Preparing for the worst
1 year ago today, I was…
1. Trying to keep all the plates spinning
2. Moving Wizmo HQ across the street
3. Finishing up the first summer of bicycle commuting
So far this year, I have…
1. changed my hairstyle
2. fixed up Twinkie
3. dropped 4 inches around my waist
Yesterday, I…
1. worked a full day
2. cleaned the apartment
3. reconnected with 2 long-lost friends
Today, I…
1. sat in meetings all day
2. had dinner with the ‘rents
3. fixed my Dad’s computer
Tomorrow, I…
1. meet with customers
2. take Mel for a ride in Twinkie and have dinner
3. call for new tires on the Beetle
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| Sicky |
[13 Oct 2004|01:33pm] |
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So, last night I felt a bit of a sore throat coming on while I was cleaning up the apartment, but I just shrugged it off. I thought it a bit unusual that I was so thirsty before bed, but once again I shrugged it off.
Woke up this morning with a full-on sore throat. I came into work, all full of energy and chipper, but by lunchtime I could already feel myself getting worn down.
For those of you playing the home game, you’ll know I hardly ever get sick…so I’m fairly certain this was a super germ engineered just to target me. (No one else around me is sick in the slightest!)
Agents have been dispatched to track down who gave me this bug. So far everyone’s alibis check out, but my agents won’t rest until they’ve figured it out.
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| Order in the Court |
[13 Oct 2004|12:26am] |
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Tonight I came home from work and started work on restoring some sense of sanity to the apartment.
I’ve made efforts over the past year or so to unpack from the house, get rid of what I don’t need or want and make some space in here for the things I love.
I spent most of the night picking things up which were already unpacked, although I did manage to make a small dent around the dining room table as well.
A trip to the Hennepin Country Hazardous Waste Center (computer recycler) this weekend should help clear out some space…I’ve got a bunch of old computers that are just sitting in the middle of the floor gathering dust. 486DX/66’s, a Pentium 60…even an old CompuAdd 386/25! The Apple IIgs I had while growing up will stay, along with all the currently used boxen.
Tomorrow night I’ll try to finish off the kitchen and the books.
Getting these three things out of the way first is important - I know I need storage in all three areas, otherwise things will fall back into disrepair rather quickly. The rest of the stuff is assorted junk which will need to find its place - but the first three need to establish their places first.
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| "Square" Chinese Chicken |
[12 Oct 2004|12:44am] |
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Many of you have heard me rant about the lack of quality Chinese-style food near my apartment. There were a large number of great establishments which could be found in downtown and uptown when I worked down there. There was also Dragon Pearl out in Hudson where I used to live. Once in a while I really get in the mood for some good ol’ Chinese food. I’m no connoisseur; but I don’t want something as “Americanized” as Leeann Chin or the buffets which serve jello and some strawberry/banana concoction right next to the chicken fried rice.
 
As an example of my pain, I submit to you a picture I snapped of the top of a freshly opened container of chow mein from a local establishment. NOTICE THE SQUARE STRIPS OF CHICKEN Where do they get such perfectly formed strips of chicken?
Judging from the consistency of the pieces (and the little air bubbles in the chicken-like substance itself) I suspect they puree the chicken in some central factory and then pour it into molds. From there the molds, filled with gelatinous chicken, are cooked at a temperature which would kill any harmful bacteria. After removing the now cooked chicken from the molds, it is weighed, bagged, and then distributed to area Chinese-style restaurants. Because it uses all the icky parts of the chicken (the stuff that’s one grade above hot dog filling) they can get it really cheap and they don’t have to worry about all the mess from dealing with live (or still-in-one-piece) chickens.
Similar mass-produced ingredients such as sweet n’ sour sauce, fried rice, egg rolls, etc. are handled in much the same way. (You think it just happens that all of these restaurants make their eggrolls the exact same way, perfect in shape and filling every time?)
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| LiveJournal Syndication |
[11 Oct 2004|08:57pm] |
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For the past 8 months or so I’ve been using LJCrossPost to syndicate my website into my existing LiveJournal account. It has worked very well, although it has its limitations. As I’ve been doing more and more with MovableType I’ve found the delays necessary for the RPC-XML send up to LiveJournal upon each page rebuild to cause timeouts and other errors. Not to mention the imperfect “backdating” functionality.
Tonight I resubscribed my LiveJournal account for 2 months to add a “syndication feed” to LiveJournal under the damon_durand account. In the near future I will disable LJCrossPost, which means my existing account will no longer be updated. If you want to continue to receive my entries on your friends page, you’ll need to add the damon_durand to your friends list.
My name is Damon Durand and I approve this message.
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| Do Elephants Laugh? |
[11 Oct 2004|03:03pm] |
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OK, so now I’ve moved back towards the other way. Only I know why.
For this brief bit while I’m on this side of the pendulum’s swing, the question which came to mind was about laughing.
Do we know why we laugh? I mean, people laugh when they are nervous, when they are happy, when something funny happens…I’ve even seen people laugh when they cry.
I’ve personally seen monkeys and other species laugh. Dolphins seem to laugh, although I don’t know if this is a trained behaviour or a natural one.
I’ve heard reports of elephants mourning their dead. Do they laugh, too?
Investigations forthcoming…
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| Screenwriter's Blues |
[11 Oct 2004|01:42pm] |
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I can’t concentrate today.
I don’t know if it is the weather outside (absolutely beautiful for October 11th in Minnesnowta) or the weather inside my head (partly cloudy with a chance of showers at times) but I keep on thinking of the weirdest things. Flashbacks to dreams I’ve had, daydreams about future plans. What to do…
I guess I’ll just go back to trying to figure out the beast “The Project” has turned into. I give it identical input, I should get identical output, shouldn’t I? It IS a computer program! I’m guessing it is a timing issue somewhere, but those are notoriously difficult to track down when you’ve got five different things going on at once. (And this time I’m just talking about the code…not including the things in my head)
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| Technorati Profile |
[09 Oct 2004|07:56am] |
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I just signed up with Technorati. Not quite sure what it does for me yet, hopefully this post will generate a ping and I’ll get to see it in action.
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| "Don't Vote" Part 3 |
[08 Oct 2004|06:30pm] |
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Well, the riddle brought up in this entry and this entry has been answered early.
According to this article from the Star Tribune the “Don’t Vote” billboards were part of a radio ad campaign for KDWB-FM.
At least one of the 15 billboards was updated Friday in downtown Minneapolis. It now says, “Don’t Vote for Dave,” a reference to morning radio host Dave Ryan of KDWB-FM.
The sign tells viewers to “Make your vote count!” next to a photo of Ryan, wearing an Uncle Sam outfit and giving the thumbs up.
Kind of disappointing, if you ask me. There is certainly a small segment of the non-voters out there that might have been pushed to vote just on account of someone telling them not to do so. Oh well!
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| MENSA Puzzle Calendar Today |
[08 Oct 2004|11:42am] |
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JManDoo, Accounting Nicole and I have a ritual of solving the MENSA Puzzle Calendar each day.
Today’s puzzle was particularly notable:
GIGANTIWORD
FILL IN THE BLANKS TO COMPLETE THE WORD BELOW:
F _ _ B _ E _ _ I _ I _ _ E T
JManDoo actually got close, even tho none of us had ever heard of the word before… ( Read more... )
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| "Don't Vote" Part 2 |
[08 Oct 2004|12:01am] |
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 In a previous entry, I talked about this curious sign which can be seen around the Twin Cities. The subject of the previous entry, as well as this picture, is taken at the intersection of Washington Ave and Lowry Ave, just north of downtown along Interstate 94. I’ve also seen other billboards with similar messages in downtown Minneapolis across from the Dome and in Saint Louis Park near Highway 169 along Highway 7.
I mentioned my fascination with these signs to my mom tonight, she referred me to a Star Tribune story from October 3rd, 2004. In the article, we do indeed find out these billboards are not sponsered by a political party or candidate. (Which would explain the absence of a “This Message Was Paid For By The Re-Elect So-And-So Committee) All will be revealed on October 11th, according to Lee Ann Muller of Clear Channel Communications, which owns the billboards.
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| 28 Things |
[07 Oct 2004|11:23pm] |
- My name is Damon Curtis Durand; I’ve never had a nickname that stuck.
- I shamelessly stole the idea for this list from Jodi.
- I rode the short bus to early childhood education when I was younger, my bus driver’s name was Betty.
- A few years later, Ed Rimkus decided I was gifted.
- I plan on retiring from professional work when I’m 45 and becoming a K-2 teacher or a professor.
- According to the Social Security Administration, I’ve earned enough credits to qualify for benefits.
- Besides college classes in high school, I’ve never attended college full-time, nor been granted a degree.
- I will never stop learning.
- I collect cool toys.
- I buy hardcover books.
- I am close to my family.
- There is an intersection in Rochester, Minnesota which connects Damon Court with Durand Court.
- I’ve been to Canada, England, Wales, Netherlands, Germany (East and West), Austria, Switzerland, Iceland, and Saint Martin. All but the first and last country I went to, without my family, between the ages of 10 and 13.
- I’ve been to 35 of the 50 States.
- I’ve been married before. I look forward to getting married again.
- I consider kids the ultimate toy. I look forward to having some of my own after I complete item 15.
- I love trivia and puzzles.
- I have 6182 songs in my iTunes library, 652 of them which have been played more than once since October 26, 2003.
- I remember the name of every girl I’ve kissed.
- I’ve never smoked, never used illegal drugs, and never been drunk.
- I practice Just-In-Time™ laundry.
- Boxers.
- I rarely eat leftovers.
- The first trace of me on the Internet (according to Google Groups) was at 4:14am CST, November 13th, 1993.
- I’ve been in complete darkness 2400 ft below the surface of the Earth at the bottom of the Soudan Mine.
- I still get excited about checking the mail.
- I’m generally a very happy person.
- If there is a reason for me being here, I believe it is in order to leave the world in better shape than I found it upon arrival.
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